DOS-623 wrote:

And it locks up. I feel like im getting closer every second, but im not sure what to do next. I know its not emm386 or himem, but i thought jemmex was good enough?

No, you have to use EMM386 or QEMM. Listed under requirements for SoftMPU: "EMM386 4.46+ (MS-DOS 6.2) or QEMM 7.03+"

Im sorry for my dos noobness. i tried out emm386, i added "DEVICE=EMM386.EXE" to the config.sys file and it says something about XMS not being found.

DOS-623 wrote:

Im sorry for my dos noobness. i tried out emm386, i added "DEVICE=EMM386.EXE" to the config.sys file and it says something about XMS not being found.

You have to have HIMEM.SYS loaded first.

Ok, so i only had himem.exe from emm386. So I tried that. nothing.

then i downloaded ms-dos 6.22's himem.sys and tried that. got a bunch of illegal operations (aka i got nowhere)

Lots of sample configs in this thread.
Freeing enough Conv. Mem for TES:Arena? (Logs included)

Some details pertain to the Windows aspects of DOS 7.1 setups, but the configuration syntax is all the same.

I run HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE from Windows 98 (MS-DOS 7) on my FreeDOS machine when I need SoftMPU. Works fine.
Make sure to load them both (Microsoft's EMM386 won't work with FreeDOS's HIMEMX for example.)

Here's the relevant lines of config.sys

1DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
2DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM

...right after one another. Dead simple.

(I actually have a boot menu set up to load whichever memory managers I want along with a bunch of other config options. Very convenient.)

Note that some MIDI devices like the Roland Sound Canvas or JV-1010 have a port for direct serial input. You won't need a baud rate converter if you have one, but you'll need a special cable. You can even theoretically use this to pass MIDI data to another device like an MT-32 by routing like this:

1PC serial out (SoftMPU) -> Sound Canvas Serial in | Sound Canvas MIDI through -> MT-32

I haven't tried that myself though.

Well, i tried what xjas suggested, and got this:

1Invalid opcode at ......
2dos mem corrupt, first_mcb=0295
3prev 0e7a:..........
4notMZ9fff:..........
5
6PANIC: MCB chain corrupted
7
8System halted

I found that I get this once the Panasonic usb driver is loaded. bypassing it causes the computer to ask me where the command interpreter is. i dont know why.

Can you post your complete autoexec.bat & config.sys?

Yep, I'll do it as soon as I get back from work.

Here is my autoexec.bat:

1@echo off 
2SET LANG=EN 
3SET MTCPCFG=C:\FDOS\MTCP.CFG 
4SET WATTCP.CFG=C:\FDOS 
5SET PATH=%dosdir%\BIN
6SET NLSPATH=%dosdir%\NLS 
7SET HELPPATH=%dosdir%\HELP
8SET TEMP=%dosdir%\TEMP
9SET TMP=%TEMP%
10SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330
11SET DIRCMD=/P /OGN /4
12SET COPYCMD=/-Y
13if "%config%"=="4" goto end
14SHSUCDX /QQ /D3
15LH SHSUCDHD /QQ /F:FDBOOTCD.ISO
16LH FDAPM APMDOS
17IF "%config%"=="2" LH SHARE
18LH DOSLFN 
19REM NLSFUNC C:\FDOS\BIN\COUNTRY.SYS
20REM DISPLAY CON=(EGA),858,2)
21REM MODE CON CP PREP=((858) C:\FDOS\CPI\EGA.CPX)
22REM KEYB US,858,C:\FDOS\bin\keyboard.sys
23REM CHCP 858
24REM LH PCNTPK INT=0x60
25REM DHCP
26rem Old MOUSE command: MOUSE DEVLOAD /H /Q %dosdir%\BIN\UIDE.SYS /H /D:FDCD0001 /S5
27MOUSE
28SHSUCDX /QQ /~ /D:?SHSU-CDR,D /D:?SHSU-CDH,D /D:?FDCD0001,D /D:?FDCD0002,D /D:?FDCD0003,D
29MEM /C /N
30IF NOT "%config%"=="4" SHSUCDX /D
31GOTO END
32:END
33SET AUTOFILE=%0
34SET CFGFILE=C:\FDCONFIG.SYS
35alias reboot=fdapm warmboot 
36alias reset=fdisk /reboot
37alias halt=fdapm poweroff 
38alias shutdown=fdapm poweroff
39alias cfg=edit %cfgfile%
40alias auto=edit %0
41echo Done processing startup files %cfgfile% and %0
42echo Type HELP to get support on commands and navigation
43echo. 
44echo Welcome to the FreeDOS 1.1 operating system (http://www.freedos.org)

and here's my config.sys file (it's called fdconfig.sys, but it's the same thing). This is what I had before I started all of this:

1!COUNTRY=001,858,C:\FDOS\BIN\COUNTRY.SYS 
2!SET DOSDIR=C:\FDOS
3!LASTDRIVE=Z
4!BUFFERS=20     
5!FILES=40
6!MENUCOLOR=7,0
7rem Original MENUDEFAULT is 1,5 (the 5 gives a 5 sec. delay)
8MENUDEFAULT=1,0
9MENU 1 - Load FreeDOS with JEMMEX, no EMS (most UMBs), max RAM free
10MENU 2 - Load FreeDOS with EMM386 (Expanded Memory) and SHARE loaded
11MENU 3 - Load FreeDOS including XMGR XMS-memory driver
12MENU 4 - Load FreeDOS without drivers 
13123?DOS=HIGH
1412?DOS=UMB
1512?DOSDATA=UMB
16REM What I had with EMM386 and HIMEM was this:
17REM 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEM,SYS
18REM 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE RAM
19REM And I removed the line below
201?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\JEMMEX.EXE NOEMS X=TEST I=TEST NOVME NOINVLPG
212?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEMX.EXE 
222?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\JEMM386.EXE X=TEST I=TEST I=B000-B7FF NOVME NOINVLPG
233?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\XMGR.SYS 
243?SHELL=C:\FDOS\bin\4dos.com C:\FDOS\bin /E:1024 /P:C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT  
254?SHELL=C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM C:\FDOS\BIN /E:1024 /P=C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT 
2612?SHELLHIGH=C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM C:\FDOS\BIN /E:1024 /P=C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT 
27
28rem The following line loads Panasonic's universal USB controller driver
29DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\BIN\USBASPI1.SYS /V /E
30rem The following is an ASPI mass storage driver for USB connected HDDs and CF cards
31DEVICEHIGH=C:\FDOS\BIN\DI1000DD.SYS
32BREAK=ON

Ah, FreeDOS. The kernel should work fine, but I recommend updating your utilities. I keep multiple versions in subdirectories regardless of the kernel I use.

For SoftMPU, you can use QEMM, but I'm most familiar with MS EMM386. You can download the corresponding pack from MDGx[1] or a version from PC-DOS (which is architecturally the same). I haven't tested the one from OpenDOS/DR-DOS, but it might work fine as well.
1. http://www.mdgx.com/dos.htm

I'd recommend HIMEMX instead of MS HIMEM.SYS as it's more efficient and seems to be completely compatible. As with EMM386, you can install the tools in different subdirectories to facilitate testing until you're more settled in what you want to operate with.

Alright, I downloaded and tried QEMM 7.5 and had no luck. QEMM386.SYS loaded and reported no errors, but line "1?DEVICE=C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS SWAPFILE=DPMI.SWP SWAPSIZE=1024" told me that it couldn't find QEMM386.SYS. The system didnt crash, but loading SoftMPU told me it wasn't loaded.

I also checked your link, gdjacobs, and i dont know what to download.

Im sorry if i am being difficult, im just struggling. and just a friendly reminder, either soundblaster/adlib or my mt-32 will work fine for me

On the MDGx website, look at the second item under Memory Manager. You should see a link to the driver pack I mentioned. I can't offer too much expertise on QEMM, but I believe QEMM386.SYS is the Quarterdeck analog of HIMEM and EMM386. QDPMI.SYS extends this with DPMI services.

Ok, so i downloaded the files from the website you linked, tried the command xjas typed earlier, and i get the same error as before,

1Invalid opcode at ......
2dos mem corrupt, first_mcb=0295
3prev 0e7a:..........
4notMZ9fff:..........
5
6PANIC: MCB chain corrupted
7
8System halted

Just noticed you had a typo in the lines you REMed out in fdconfig.sys :

1REM What I had with EMM386 and HIMEM was this:
2REM 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEM,SYS
3REM 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE RAM

You were calling HIMEM.SYS with a comma instead of a dot. This would make EMM386 refuse to load as well as it depends on HIMEM.

Try using a bare-bones fdconfig.sys, like

1DOS=HIGH,UMB
2DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEMX.EXE
3DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM386.EXE RAM I=B000-B7FF
4FILESHIGH=20
5BUFFERSHIGH=40
6STACKSHIGH=9,256
7SHELLHIGH=C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM C:\FDOS\BIN /E:384 /P=C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

(this is based on mine)

Your autoexec.bat can be pretty much blank, or use this:

1@echo off
2SET PATH=C:\;C:\FDOS;C:\FDOS\BIN

Backup your old files first, these are just for testing. Note that this won't load CD-ROM or mouse drivers.

** EDIT: removed long-filename (DOSLFN) and power management (FDAPM) support, which I don't think you need. If you find the CPU fans are going at full-bore or the system is getting too hot, you might have to put FDAPM back in. Also replaced HIMEM.SYS with HIMEMX.EXE and reduced the environment space (COMMAND.COM /E:xxx) from 640 to 384. If you get "out of environment space" errors you'll have to bump this back up. **

xjas wrote:

Microsoft's EMM386 won't work with FreeDOS's HIMEMX for example.

This is completely incorrect.

DOS-623 wrote:

Ok, so i downloaded the files from the website you linked, tried the command xjas typed earlier, and i get the same error as before

The MS-DOS version of EMM386 is required for SoftMPU. This is a problem with something else. Does your system boot properly with the Panasonic ASPI driver not installed?

Also, a note on hardware. I believe the T5xxx model thin clients use a standard 44 pin laptop style IDE connector, so you aren't completely dependent on USB for storage.

ok, making more progress. copied the files gdj suggested earlier to c:/fdos/bin/emm98se
changed my config.sys file to say

11?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM98SE\HIMEM.SYS
21?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\EMM98SE\EMM386.EXe

this oddly worked, and i even got midi to play properly. the only issue is i can barly open any games. i open indiana jones atlantis, needs 8K or more of memory to run smoothly. i open stunts, out of memory. i open willy beamish, needs at least 541K.

when typing "...EMM386.EXE RAM" i was asked by freedos to specify the command interperter
when typing "...EMM386.EXE 20000" i believe the same thing happened

and changing device to devicehigh still made games not work

my conventional is about 502K (i think, not at my comp right now)
my upper is 0K
my ems is 32MB
my xms is 113,520K i believe

im stuck here.

and, xjas, that comma was a misteak on my end on typing it into the reply box. on my computer it actaually had a dot. apologies.

and xjas, i dont know if you still want me to try that since i got midi to work. if so let me know

and gdj, i am able to boot to the C:\ prompt ok without the aspi driver. also, upon opening the lid i found no ide connectors to be found.

DOS-623 wrote:

i was asked by freedos to specify the command interperter

If this comes up, it's asking you where COMMAND.COM is. I *believe* you can just type in C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM . Or copy COMMAND.COM to the root directory ( C:\ ) if it's not there already.

DOS-623 wrote:

and xjas, i dont know if you still want me to try that since i got midi to work. if so let me know

Good that you got it working! I was still trying to diagnose the "PANIC: MCB chain corrupted" error you were getting before.

Sounds like you're way low on base memory. My system boots to 570k free with MS-DOS 7 HIMEM.SYS/EMM386.EXE, GUS PnP drivers, AWE64 drivers (neither of those actually take any memory IIRC), mouse (ctmouse), and SoftMPU in COM-port mode loaded. Note no CD-ROM driver.
(And that is UN-optimized. Using FreeDOS's memory managers in my normal boot config I get 624k free.)

You have a lot of stuff loading on boot so you're going to have to do some optimization. Try disabling some stuff (DOSLFN, 4DOS, CD-ROM, etc.) and see where you get. You can also use HIMEMX.EXE as Gdjacobs suggested (I learned something new today...) instead of HIMEM.SYS, and experiment with the I=xxxx-xxxx parameter in EMM386.EXE (this can be a pain to get right, but i=B000-B7FF usually works.)

Or try the minimal config files I posted and see where that gets you. 😀

Here's an old site that explains a lot about optimizing Autoexec.bat & Config.sys:

http://www.cubic.org/docs/configuring.htm

Note that it was made in the MS-DOS 6.2 era so not all of it is applicable to FreeDOS (or even later MS-DOS), but it clarifies a lot of the commands and parameters so it doesn't just look like a wall of text.

xjas wrote:

DOS-623 wrote:

i was asked by freedos to specify the command interperter

If this comes up, it's asking you where COMMAND.COM is. I *believe* you can just type in C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM . Or copy COMMAND.COM to the root directory ( C:\ ) if it's not there already.

i did try both of these, yeilding not working.

xjas wrote:

Sounds like you're way low on base memory.

This is what i thought as well, but i have 128MB of ram, so how am i low. i dont mean to sound rude, just curious.

xjas wrote:

...Note no CD-ROM driver.

for me, the only thing a cd rom driver is being loaded for is because i mount isos in dos to play games since i dont have a physical cd rom drive connected. i might get a usb one, but we'll see. im not completely sure why the cd rom driver loads the freedos iso in the beginning. i think it might be if no complete dos installation is found, it will boot to the installer iso?

xjas wrote:

You have a lot of stuff loading on boot so you're going to have to do some optimization. Try disabling some stuff (DOSLFN, 4DOS, CD-ROM, etc.) and see where you get. You can also use HIMEMX.EXE as Gdjacobs suggested (I learned something new today...) instead of HIMEM.SYS, and experiment with the I=xxxx-xxxx parameter in EMM386.EXE (this can be a pain to get right, but i=B000-B7FF usually works.)

what even is 4dos? im sorry, i dont know many of these things. i know lfn is long file names, which i would like, but i might need some assistance with optimisation (apologies)
im not completely sure, but i think i tried himemx and it didnt work. but i can try again soon and report back my findings.
i also have been fooling around with the x=xxxx-xxxx and the i=xxxx-xxxx parameters, but it seemed that whatever i typed in there it ceased to properly boot. i did try b000-b7ff in the past, and it was a no go.

xjas wrote:

Or try the minimal config files I posted and see where that gets you. 😀

i will try this too 😀

and thank you xjas for pasting the link. i already visited here before in attempts to increase my umb, but to no avail. i will read once more and report back.